I'm amused that Tumblr is becoming a frontrunner as Twitter replacement.<p>I'm not 100% convinced by it, but it _seems_ like a better proper replacement than Mastodon (sorry FOSS people, but... centralized logins is a big deal compared to federated spaces).<p>At least, its the closest thing I've seen discussed that seems to do a similar job to Twitter. Sharing comments / images / short form video with a large community of communities with a somewhat trusted login / identity<p>Mastodon doesn't fix that, because Alice@instance1.com doesn't necessarily mean you're talking to Alice. It could be a malicious Alice. Maybe the "real" Alice is Alice@instanceAlpha.com. Twitter used to have blue-checkmarks for this, but that identify management seems to be getting destroyed by the current chaos, and people are rightfully wondering how to get a trusted identity for their discussions.
I saw a bunch of posts on the tumblr frontpage without being logged in. How are these determined, if not by some kind of algorithm? I made a new account and I saw a bunch of posts on my feed, apparently personalized based on my past surfing, without having followed anyone. Again, same question.<p>I have nothing against "algorithms", but why is the CEO of the company that owns tumblr reblogging someone making claims about tumblr that are just not true?
Surprisingly little known, but Twitter also has a strict-timeline mode. It's great! Tap the pair of stars in the upper-right to bring up a menu to turn it on.
"There's no algorithms [...] Read what comes across your dashboard"<p>I love Neil Gaiman's works, but he's no technology wizard - he's an author trying to surf this insanity we call social media.<p>And that's OK. There are algorithms, yet his advice is still sound.
The supposed post-Twitter situation is entirely imaginary and typical of Twitter culture: hysterical, performative, not really rooted in any fact whatsoever.<p>But for the sake of argument, let's go along with the idea that a major shift is happening. The thing is, everything people found great about Twitter, they will not find in alternatives like Mastodon or Tumblr.<p>Those networks are organic, more personal and bubble-like, and relatively peaceful. Which is healthy, but entirely the opposite of Twitter which is algorithmic amplification of hot takes, outrage, division and the many engagement farming tactics that come along with it.<p>On an organic reach platform, that behavior doesn't work. Which is a steep change. To a Twitter user, such a platform will feel broken. It's quiet, peaceful, and they're not ranking up followers or influence with low effort hot takes.<p>Not only that, the hot takes may get them banned. Twitter users have been using toxicity as a tool for so many years that they've normalized behavior and language that is widely unacceptable outside Twitter.<p>Twitter users escaping Twitter do not want something completely different. They want Twitter but without Elon Musk. Which is largely performative. But you can't replicate the Twitter experience outside of Twitter.<p>Note how none of the big accounts are leaving. A true departure means deleting your account. Nobody does it. They keep rambling on about Mastodon yet fail to get even 5% of their followers there. They keep coming back to say how great Mastodon is, but never actually leave Twitter. Some may deactivate their account but never delete it. They know very well that a big following on Twitter cannot be recreated anywhere else.<p>The other thing the alternatives cannot replace is Twitter's news factor. Whether it is sports, coverage of war, whatever is happening in the world, it's happening in real time on Twitter. Absolutely never on Mastodon.